where have i been?

where have i been?

well, here and there, and a little bit of nowhere.  i've been silent since my trip to ireland, apologies.  the truth is, not much has happened, and yet a lot has.

very shortly after my last blog post, i got a letter from the peace corps.  ok, that's a little over-simplified.  as the peace corps does, i got an email saying my online status had changed.  so i went online, excited to see what that meant, and hoping like crazy that i'd see the medical approval.  what i saw was another note, telling me that an "important communication" had been sent to me.  an email to direct you to a website to direct you to a piece of mail.  they do know how to torture applicants.

i was quite surprised when i got the letter, as it stated that they outright rejected me.  i expected them to probably ask for more info or forms or doctor's notes based on whatever they needed to know more about.  (though, i confess, a part of me was vain enough to hope that maybe i'd be one of the extremely rare cases where they would accept me without asking for more info.  after all, my forms were very, very thorough and i had checked everything multiple times and i had every possible thing they could ask for.)  but that was not the case.  they were not asking for additional info.

the reason why i was rejected is not worth going into detail.  one of the forms from my doctor had a mistake on it and indicated i had a condition which i don't have.  as a rather serious condition, and with absolutely no other mention of it or explanation for it, the peace corps concluded that it was not something for which they could offer adequate care in the field.  (though why they didn't ask for more information is a concerning question to me.)

ok, so you're thinking 'how the heck were you so thorough and yet you let a misdiagnosis as serious as that get through on your application?'  it's a complicated story, again not worth getting into.  but the short version is that i thought it was part of some technical diagnosis scale that doctors understood and i didn't need to.  ha!

luckily there is an appeal process for these decisions (though you only get one chance and their decision is final).  so... i had to submit 8 more pages of medical forms and backup to challenge my rejection.  make that 84 pages total now -- for medical alone.

although the misdiagnosis is clear, and i have letters from two health care providers refuting it (including the original one admitting she made a mistake), i am still inexplicably nervous about it.

maybe not exactly 'inexplicably'.  there are several reasons for my nerves over the issue.  first, now that i've been rejected once, i don't have much faith that they will judge with reason and take my doctor's word for it (even though it was my doctor from whom the original thing came).  kind of like you can't un-ring a bell.  second, i am quite disconcerted by the fact that they simply rejected me without any chance for further explanation or opportunity to answer their questions/clarify the information.  this means that any possible thing in my files that raises a question could end up with an automatic rejection.  wth?  third, although this appeal could get me over the hump of the misdiagnosis, there are still other potential concerns in my file that could cause a deferment or rejection.  winning the appeal only means that they will continue considering my application, from wherever they stopped.  fourth, the whole thing has me feeling very pessimistic about my chances.

as you can imagine, i've gone through a range of emotions on this.  at this point i'm mostly just not thinking about it and trying to pretend that i won't be going, to prepare for what feels inevitable.  if they could reject me for that, for what wouldn't they reject me?  i know it's silly, but it's hard not to take it personally, as if they don't want me to serve. 

so the letter had the name of a screening nurse that i could call with questions.  i called early on to explain and let her know of my intent to appeal.  i also tried to see if i could get any idea from her how big a deal any other issues might be (and to try to sneak in some reassurance/explanation on anything she might wonder about).  naturally, it's the peace corps, so there are multiple levels to everything.  this "screening nurse" doesn't actually have or review my files, it's just her name on the letter.  someone else does it, so i was not able to make any personal contact to try to help my case.  i can't help but wonder why i had to contact someone who doesn't know much of anything about my case, yet seemed to have power over it.  except that it's peace corps.

anyhow, i've confirmed that they've gotten the new paperwork within the deadline to make an appeal, and the screening nurse has confirmed that the person reviewing my file is swamped with work and "it could be a while".  what i haven't confirmed -- but believe and hope is allowed -- is whether i can make another appeal if they reject me for a different reason.

i'm not sure whether it will help or hurt, but in the new papers i submitted, i put a little handwritten note asking them to "please, please" ask me if there were any questions or concerns and not just reject me.

as usual, time will tell.